Devotionals

Taking off our old selves — our Adamic natures that love rebellion — and putting on Christ is really a single act. We cannot live in Adam and in Christ at the same time, which means that we cannot refuse ...Read More

John Calvin writes, “He whose life differs not from that of unbelievers, has learned nothing of Christ; for the knowledge of Christ cannot be separated from the mortification of the flesh.” Scripture never asserts that sinless perfection is attainable before ...Read More

Sin affects our entire being, including our ability to love, our capacity to reason, and our physical bodies. The longer we persist in sin, the harder it is to see and do the will of God, so we must endeavor ...Read More

God’s law defines what is pleasing to Him, so we must always seek to understand it and follow it in the power of the Spirit. Yet while the law tells us what is right and wrong and what we may ...Read More

Paul makes a subtle shift in Ephesians 2:1–3 from “you” (the Gentile Ephesians) to “we” (Jews like Paul and the Gentiles), indicating the universality of sin. John Chrysostom writes, “All are included. It is not possible to say that anyone ...Read More

Gossip and slander are two of the most overlooked sins in our day. We are quick to condemn sexual immorality, theft, and murder, but at the same time we often relish the opportunity to hear and tell stories about what ...Read More

As today’s study shows, understanding the cultural background of a passage in Scripture is important to figuring out why an author says what he says. In turn, as we hope to show in future studies, knowing this historical context also ...Read More

The flippant references about God and lack of respect for authority that are rampant in our culture reflect the primal sin of not giving honor to the Creator. Unfortunately, even those of us in the church are not entirely guiltless ...Read More

Having been baptized into Christ we have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27), and a deceitful tongue has no place in those who belong to the Savior. All people should expect honesty from us, for we are followers of the Lord ...Read More

One commentator has said that “we should never confuse being moral with being Christian, but we cannot claim to be Christian if we ignore morality.” An outwardly upright life is not a sure sign that somebody knows Christ, but a ...Read More